So he's a threat to everyone who doesn't walk around with armor jackets, including SINners.
I didn't say armor jacket.
Knife is STR+1. Armor
clothing is armor rating 6. Assuming for fairly average stats (2's and 3's in stats and skills) the street thug with the knife can't shank pretty much anyone wearing the barest protection. I imagine the subway stations are just filled with blunted knives.
It isn't entirely a problem as this is a bit of an edge case, but in general, the weapons and armor are designed around a vaguely defined area, number-wise. With guns that's fine - they do a set damage you can build things around (so armor clothing on average can soak a light pistol firing standard rounds - makes sense, it's what the armored clothing is FOR). Things get a bit weird with non-guns though, since those are stat-dependent. To go by the same number, the average strength needed to keep up with armor would be
five, the human non-capped max. That would give knives, the crappiest weapon, light pistol damage - the crappiest gun. It would also give a katana SMG damage, which is where you start to hit problems, because again, this is the non-capped max. Now, if you're a sammy, no worries - grab some 'are, pump your stat. You can fairly decently start with a +3 to your strrength either through cyberlimb or used muscle aug. This would give you 11, which at least to my eyes seems
about right - it's standard AR damage with non-specialized bullets, and will penetrate most armors. Of course, remember - you've invested
way more then some gunbunny with an Alpha at this point, and it's an automatic, so she can empty their dodge pool if she watches for recoil. Also recall - this is JUST sammy. If you're an adept, you likely do NOT have that strength boost, but you do have Critical Strike to add the +1, so now you're at 9, which puts you down lower again.
Now, if you go ork or troll, life gets easier. The ork is going to add 2 to that number so he's doing sniper rifle damage, which is
very good indeed, though I would wager he's spent more then enough resources to earn that (having had both his race and his stats locked in). The troll is going to be doing a LOT of damage, but he's had to give up his A priority to do so, which is no small matter.
This brings me to the problem: it's
exceptionally demanding for a dwarf, human, or elf to hit proficiency levels of damage if they go melee, which I am assuming was not the intention. Every time I've toyed with making a melee dude, I always end up with ork sammy. When I make adept I start staring at 'ware and fail to convince myself I can do without. When I go human I stare at my strength and sigh because it's not enough.
In short, melee seems build for goblinized sammies. Others need not really apply, unless you're going monowhip (which I hate and would nerf in a heartbeat) or shock damage (which seems niche).
